AP English students participate in “Scarlet Letter Day”

Juniors in Mrs. Buckley’s AP English Language class recently completed a unique project based on their summer reading novel, The Scarlet Letter.  In the novel, the main character, Hester Prynne, is forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her chest to represent her sin of adultery. Mrs. Buckley considers this novel to be one of the most challenging novels for her AP students to read because of its dense language and complex story line.

Each student was tasked with choosing a character trait that they possess, whether it was good or bad, and then create a “scarlet letter” that they had to wear throughout the school day.  The letters had to be four inches tall and uniquely decorated towards their chosen trait.

Junior Mathew Bisner, chose to portray his trait of “being obnoxious” by decorating his letter “O” to resemble a talking mouth.  Sarah Belk and Kaitlyn Cox showed off their “cluelessness” and “indecisiveness” by decorating their letters with question marks.  Anna Broadus created a vibrant “E” to reflect her energetic personality.

After wearing their scarlet letter for the whole school day, students had to write a brief essay about their experience. The essay encouraged the students to explain how strange it felt to wear their trait all day and if their letter caused their peers to treat them differently. Junior Julia Bruffey states, “I think this was a really fun and unique project that really helped me connect to the characters and story line.”

Overall, this project allowed students to fully understand how Hester Prynne felt throughout the novel and how to comprehend the novel better.

Story by Taylor Smith